iScot Magazine May 2018

It’s on the news. There’s been an explosion. It was in one of those countries that you couldn’t find on a map, even if you didn’t keep getting it mixed up with that other country that you couldn’t find on a map.

You don’t recognise the unpronounceable name of the actual town where this incident happened. You know it’s not one of the places that have become familiar as a site of atrocities because, on the news, they’re referring to it as “the town of…”. A prefix reserved for places they think people won’t know is a town unless they’re told.

You wonder if there’s some rule that governs when that prefix is dropped. Is it after a certain number of atrocities? Or is it after a certain number of mentions of the…